“You do not have to do this, my dear.”
He must have seen the apprehension in her eyes. “Don’t say that. Markle has to be stopped. Besides, I have endured one kidnapping. What is another one? I will be better prepared this time.”
“You will be alone.”
Rather than acknowledge this, she asked, “Have you slept well this week?”
He knew what she meant. “I missed you dreadfully the first few nights.”
“Only the first few?” she said archly. “I miss your arms around me when I fall asleep.”
He shrugged. “Markle showed up, and I have been so worried I would not have slept well even if I could hear you breathing next to me.”
Darcy suddenly crossed the room to a writing desk and pulled out a large mother-of-pearl pocket knife. “Do not say I do not give my betrothed gifts. It is sturdier than the quill knife I used on Steamer.”
She took it and opened it. She could do this, and she would not need the knife. Markle would taunt her and perhaps knock her about, but he wanted his nephew. She would not need to escape; the excise officers would arrest him when Markle appeared to make the trade for Kirby.
“You don’t have to do this,” Darcy repeated.
Elizabeth put away the knife. “It is my idea, and my decision.”
“Any sensible person would stop you from doing this. What does that say about me?”
It said he was terrified for a little boy and his little sister. She knew this was going to be harder for him than her. “It says you know this is the best and fastest way, and you are respecting my choice and admiring my courage.”
“Or that I am a damned fool.”
“If you don’t like it,” she said, reading his expression, “we could run away instead to where Markle could never find us. India? The Canadas? Is there anywhere you have always wanted to go?”
“There is the small problem of the hundreds of people at Pemberley who depend on me.”
“What a shame. I do wish you were poorer.”
“Stop trying to make me laugh.” He said it so forcefully Elizabeth flinched. “When this is over you can sport with me to your heart’s content, but not now. I feel like every nerve around my frantically beating heart is being frayed.”
She put her arms around him, pressing a quick kiss to his lips. “I am sorry. Let us talk about something else. Kirby will be so happy to leave London. You have done a wonderfully generous thing.”
Thinking of him made Darcy smile. “Hopefully we can afford him because Kirby eats everything put in front of him.” She smiled, but Darcy sobered. “I did not consider your feelings as I ought to have done. You will start your married life with a twelve-year-old ward, and I have already promised the boy that he is welcome at Pemberley whenever he likes.”
“In this instance, there was no reason to consult me. You know I would do exactly as you had. I hate to think of him alone and friendless after what he has been through. He will often be at Pemberley with us, and, for that matter, so should Miss Darcy. Once this is over, you must introduce me to my new sister.”
“How do you do that?” he asked in wonder. “How do you easily imagine our happy future knowing you are going to be abducted? My mind is imagining every worst possible outcome.”
“Don’t you see, Fitzwilliam? I am doing this to guarantee our happy future,” she said emphatically. “If we do nothing, Markle will lose his patience and kill you on the street out of spite, and he will find me and do the same. Or he will find your sister, and I cannot live with that. There is no one to protect us. I am doing this for us, and to stop a child beater and a murderer.”
“I know!” His loss of temper did not surprise her. He knew Markle had to be stopped; Darcy just did not want the womanhe loved to be involved in doing it. “I know why,” he repeated quietly, “and I wish I could go in your place.”
She answered by kissing his lips tenderly. “You cannot control everything.”
He bowed his head, as though this truth was physically painful. “He will underestimate you, but comply with him like you did before, and assure him that I will do anything to get you back, that I will bring him Kirby, that I will pay more than what he wanted from Lady Catherine.”
“Why would I offer money? He does not want it; he only wants Kirby back.”
“Offer him anything, and I will pay it,” he said plainly. “He could harm you. He could torture you, do unspeakable things to you. If you need to offer money to stop him, do it.”
“He might just threaten me to get what he really wants, which is his nephew.”
They heard a noise by the door. Feet shuffling, pausing, and then moving away.
